Incarcerated
by Dana Hale
Summary: Post The Truth. Mulder and Scully run into trouble at the Mexican border. Chapter 17 now up! Did you think I wasn't going to update? The story continues! :
1. Near the Mexican Border

TITLE: "Incarcerated" 

AUTHOR: Dana Hale

RATING: K

SPOILERS: Post "The Truth"

SUMMARY: Mulder and Scully run into trouble at the Mexican border.

DISCLAIMER: The X-Files television show and characters belong to Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and the Fox Corporation.

* * *

The headlights in his rearview mirror pierced the silent darkness with a loud bright awakening. Mulder had thought that if they left Roswell before dawn no one would be able to track them. He hoped that he was just being his usual paranoid self and that the ever-closer approaching car behind them was nobody in particular. He hated to wake Scully who was still sleeping next to him in their borrowed SUV, but he didn't want her to be startled should he have to start using evasive maneuvers.

He took a second to look at her and peeled his right hand off of the steering wheel to lightly brush her cheek. "Hey, Scully."

Scully stirred and leaned in to his hand. Before opening her eyes, she stretched her arms above her head and let out a yawn. Mulder wished he wasn't driving at the moment so that he could fully watch and appreciate Scully's intricate way of waking up. Why she left her home and family behind without question and was here with him now, he couldn't comprehend. But he couldn't imagine continuing on without her. She was all he had, and he had already been apart from her for far too long.

In her sleep she was at peace and innocent of the uncertain and long road that lay ahead of them. But then her eyes opened and their situation came flooding back into her mind. Mulder put his hand back on the steering wheel. She sat up a little further in the seat.

"It's still dark. Where are we?"

"Sorry to wake you. We're near the Mexican border."

"Mulder..."

It wasn't easy for him to hear the anxiety in her voice. Just a few hours ago, she was the one giving him the pep talk. "It's going to be okay, Scully," he said, although his voice betrayed him as well. He took another nervous glance in the rearview mirror.

"Then why is that car behind us just about on our bumper?"

"Oh, you noticed that too, did you? Hang on."

Mulder abruptly made a left hand turn down a dirt road and floored the gas pedal. The car behind them followed.

Scully looked out the back window. "Mulder, what are we going to do?"

Just as she finished asking that question, Mulder hit the brakes hard. Scully was jerked forward and then back by her seat belt. When the SUV came to a complete stop, they were inches away from six other parked cars staring right back at them, surrounding them in a road block. The car from behind them also came to a stop. No one moved. It was all too eerily quiet.

Scully looked at Mulder in a panic. They were trapped. This was it. So this is how it would all come down. No backup and all alone in the middle of nowhere.

"Listen to me, Scully. They want me, not you. You have to promise me that when we get out of this car that you'll let them take me. They won't hurt you if you don't resist and they'll let you go."

"No Mulder." Scully tried to hide the tears in her eyes.

Mulder grabbed Scully's hands. "Please, Scully. You have to. I need to know that you're going to stay alive."

"Mulder, I'm not letting you go."

"Scully...I..."

The men in front of them got out of their cars. They were all soldiers and all too happy to display their machine guns. They rapidly approached the SUV and yanked open the doors. Mulder swallowed hard and took one last desperate glance at Scully. She thought that she saw him silently mouth the words "I love you," but she wasn't certain with all the commotion.

"Salir del coche! Poner tus manos para arriba!" (Get out of the car! Put your hands up!)

Three men pulled Mulder out of the driver's side while Scully was also jerked out of the car by three other men. They forced Mulder and Scully to the ground, making them land hard in the rocky dirt on their knees.

The man who had been following them now stood before them. He seemed to be the leader of the group. "Mirar lo que tenemos aqui. Americanos." (Look what we have here. Americans.)

"Si. Y bastante, tambien.? (Yes. And pretty, too.)

One of the men caressed Scully's face and the rest of them laughed. Scully turned her face away and was able to stay collected, but their attention on her made Mulder nervous.

"What do you want with us?" Mulder asked quickly, trying to divert their attention to him.

The leader pointed to one of the soldiers. "Lo tomas." (You take him). Then he pointed to the soldier closest to Scully, the one who had caressed her face. "Tomas a muchacha." (You take the girl). "Vayamos!" (Let's go!)

Mulder was harshly pulled up and separated from Scully. He watched as the other man grabbed Scully and callously started to shove her in one of the cars. She tried to resist but was no match for the soldier's sheer size and strength.

"SCULLY!" Mulder screamed at the top of his lungs. He was being dragged to another car. He tried to kick and worm his way out of the hands of his captor to get back to Scully, but more soldiers surrounded him and sedated him with hard punches to his stomach. He fell to the ground. They picked up his limp body and threw him in the car.

"MULDER!" Scully cried out as the car she was in sped away.


	2. The Underground Prison

With the butt of a machine gun pushed deep into his back by one of the Mexican soldiers, Mulder walked down a long dark corridor in an old underground prison. The prison was empty, from what Mulder could tell. The soldier walking with him was silent and Mulder was not about to make him mad. He figured the best way to handle this right now was to try to stay calm so that he could form a plan to get out of this mess and find Scully.

He began to wonder if these soldiers even knew who he was and why he and Scully were on the run in the first place. Maybe this was just a case of two Americans being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, Mulder couldn't forget the look on Scully's face as they took her away from him. He hoped to God they weren't hurting her.

The soldier stopped him at the end of the corridor and opened the cell that was second-to-last in the long row of barred cages. Mulder was shoved forward into the cell. Still the soldier was silent, offering no explanations. The cell doors were shut and locked. The sound of the action echoed throughout the corridor. Then soldier left. Once again Mulder found himself in a dark place with only a cement floor, stone walls, and cold steel bars to keep him company.

"Deja vu," Mulder said to himself. He sat on the floor in the corner and bowed his head. "I AM a guilty man."

"You said it, not me, Mr. Mulder."

Mulder felt the hairs on the back of his neck perk up at the sound of that voice. It was a voice that was unmistakable and totally unwanted. Mulder looked up. There standing in front of him was the ghost of the Smoking Man.

Mulder almost laughed at the sight of him. Of all the ghosts that had appeared to him the last few days, the last person he ever thought he would see was this man. Now Mulder could really deem himself as crazy. "How's Hell?" Mulder asked him.

"It's hot and there's lots of fire. I've got a light whenever I need one." The Smoking Man held out a cigarette in mid-air and it automatically lit itself. "Why stop now?" He took a puff and blew out the smoke. "It's not like I'll die from lung cancer."

"You don't know how to die. Why are you here?"

"You're in trouble. You need a friend."

"My hero."

"Don't be so quick to dismiss me. I can see things you can't."

Mulder stood up and looked at the Smoking Man square in the eye.

"Look at you. You're dead, and you're still trying to play the power card. You've never intended to tell me the truth. All these years you've led me blindly and have caused me and Scully nothing but trouble. But now I do know the truth. And you no longer have power over me."

"On the contrary. I am your eyes, Mulder. You are blind to what is going on here. Things are not what they seem."

"And I'm sure you're going to tell me exactly what you mean by that?" Mulder said sarcastically.

"This is not a Mexican prison, Mulder. Open your eyes."

"Mulder, please...open your eyes..."

Mulder was jerked awake by someone rubbing his shoulder. "Please open your eyes..."

"Scully?"

"Yeah, Mulder. It's me."

"Oh my God! Scully!"

Mulder quickly sat up and saw Scully sitting on the floor of the adjoining cell, her arms reaching through the bars to touch him. He grasped her face in his hands and rubbed his thumbs over cheeks. "Is it really you?"

Scully proceeded to show him that it really was her by giving him a good hard kiss on the lips, much like the one he had given her a few days ago when they first saw each other after being apart for so long. He broke the kiss first. He was so elated to have her with him again, but he had questions to ask.

"Oh my God. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" Mulder looked her over and expected to see bruises and blood and broken bones, or something.

"No. I'm okay." But her tears showed otherwise. "I thought I'd never see you again."

He tried to hold her through the bars. It was awkward at first, but he finally got his arms around her. "I know. I had the same fear."

They stayed like that until Scully had finally calmed down and was no longer crying. She knew that she had to stay strong if they were ever going to get out of this alive.

"So where are we?" she finally asked. He let her out of his embrace but took hold of her hands instead. There was no way he was going to break physical contact with her.

"I'm not sure. Some sort of underground prison. Did any of the soldiers say anything to you?"

"No. It was weird, actually. Once I got in the car, they never said a word all the way here. It was like they were robots or something."

"Robots," Mulder repeated softly. His eyes glazed over as he thought about what the Smoking Man had said to him, about things not being what they seem.

"Mulder? Are you okay?"

"Huh?"

"You wandered off there for a minute. Got a theory?"

"Maybe. But you're not going to like it."


	3. The Dead are Among Us

Mulder stood in his prison cell and turned his back to Scully. She was still sitting on the concrete floor of the adjacent cell, watching his every move and waiting for him to speak. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily. She could tell that he was trying to formulate the right words in the best way possible to make her believe.

"Mulder, whatever it is, you can tell me. I know I haven't always agreed with your theories, but things are different this time around. I've seen and experienced too much to ignore the truth now. Please...just tell me."

After another pause, Mulder finally said, "The dead are among us, Scully."

Scully crinkled her brow in confusion. "I'm not following you."

"I told you last night that the dead are not lost to us; that they speak to us..." Mulder sat back down to look at Scully eye-level. When he saw that she was still ready to listen and not rejecting what he was saying, he gained more confidence. "I've been seeing apparitions, Scully. Of our friends and our enemies who have gone on ahead of us. They appear to me and try to tell me things."

"What are they telling you?"

"I was told that things are not what they seem."

"By whom?"

When Mulder wouldn't answer her, she calmly took is hand and repeated her question using a softer voice. "By whom?"

"The Smoking Man."

Now it was Scully's turn to sigh heavily. She took a moment to look at their intertwined hands before speaking. "Do you believe him?"

Mulder almost smiled. "You know that I've never trusted him. But for some reason, I feel like he's telling the truth this time. Think about it, Scully. These men that are holding us; they haven't said why they are keeping us here or what they want from us. Do they even know who we are and why we're on the run? You would think that they would have interrogated us by now."

"I'm sure we'll find out soon. They can't just leave us here to rot."

"Or can they?"

"Mulder, don't say that. How many other crazy situations have we been in that we got out of?"

"Way too many, Scully. Maybe fate is finally catching up with us."

"At least we're together," Scully added quietly, not being able to look him in the eye.

Mulder's heart ached at her words. He lifted her chin up with his hand to make her look at him. His eyes were raw and intense with feelings of love and guilt. "I never should have left you."

"You did what you had to do. And you found the truth."

"But was it worth the price? Our son. My God, Scully...William...what you had to do..."

Scully thought that she could stay strong, but at the mention of their son's name, she could not hold back the tears. "I'm so sorry, Mulder. I did what I thought was right...so unthinkable...it's been so unbearable...I'm so sorry..."

Mulder shook his head and his own tears started to well up. "No, you don't understand. I don't blame you. It's not your fault. It's mine. I'm the one to blame. I'm the one that left. I could have done something...I could have fought hard for the both of you."

"Mulder, as difficult as it was to say goodbye to you and to be apart from you for so long, I don't ever want you to think that you made the wrong decision. There was nothing you could have done. You are not to blame. Don't you see? There was never a way for either of us to protect him. Because of what he is. Because of what they think he is."

Mulder was about to open his mouth to object once more, but the sound of footsteps echoing throughout the outer corridor silenced him. Each step became louder and louder. Mulder and Scully stayed very still and hardly dared to breathe. Finally, one of the Mexican soldiers appeared and stopped in front of Scully's cell to unlock the door.


	4. Questioning

The soldier entered Scully's cell and grabbed her by the arm. "Venido con mí." (Come with me.)

"NO! Take ME! Take me instead!" Mulder pleaded. The soldier yanked on her arm and pulled her up haphazardly off the floor. Mulder immediately felt the loss of the physical connection he had with Scully as her hands left the warm grasp of his.

Scully didn't fight. She glanced bravely at Mulder to silently let him know that she would be okay. But in her heart she was terrified, and so was Mulder.

The soldier escorted her out of the cell and Scully kept eye contact with Mulder. She would be strong for his sake.

"No, please take me, not her. Please! POR FAVOR!" Mulder cried out in one last desperate attempt to switch places with Scully. He ran to the front of his cell and watched through the bars as Scully disappeared down the corridor with the soldier.

Mulder was so enraged that he took hold of the bars of his cell with both hands and shook the doors ferociously to release all of his anger, fear, and frustration. "SCULLY! WHY HER? WHY HER? TAKE ME!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. He kept shaking the bars until all of his energy was spent, and he slowly crumpled to the ground and buried his face in his hands. "Scully..."

* * *

Scully was taken to a small white room. The soldier closed the door behind them and pushed her into the lone chair that was in the middle of the room. Scully stayed compliant. The soldier walked around her slowly, looking her up and down. He stopped right in front of her and stooped to her level. He put his face right up in hers, and she could smell his stale breath as he took a moment to stare her down. He was trying to intimidate her, to let her know that he was in full control and there would be trouble if she tried anything. She kept telling herself over and over to stay calm. She was a trained FBI agent. She could get through this. 

Finally, he stood up and said, "Vas a decirme donde él está."

Scully knew some Spanish, but she was rusty. "En ingles, por favor," Scully said, her voice unwavering. (In English, please.)

"You will tell me where he is," the soldier repeated louder and stronger, his English coated with a Spanish flavor.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Where is he?"

"I assure you I do not know what you are talking about. Who are you looking for?"

"The boy."

Scully's mind was working overtime. What boy? What does he want me to say? Who are these people? What do they want from me? She knew that she had to form her answers in such a way to get him to reveal more information to her, to get him to talk.

"What boy?"

The soldier promptly slapped Scully across her face. It surprised her and stung a bit, but she could not let the pain and fear get to her. She stayed composed. "You need to tell me what boy you are looking for so that I can answer your question."

"Think hard, Agent Scully. You know. You will tell me now."

Scully's breath was taken away. The fact that he knew her name and that she was an Agent threw her off guard. "How do you know me..."

"WHERE IS THE BOY?" The soldier was loosing his patience.

Scully decided to remain silent. She hoped that he would give her time to think. Did she know who this guy was? Had she seen him before?

"We need his powers. Where is he?"

Powers? Gibson...was he talking about Gibson Praise? What would a Mexican soldier want with Gibson? And how did he know about him? Was this man a part of the conspiracy?

"What do you want with this boy?" Scully dared to ask.

Her question earned her another hard slap to the face. Scully closed her eyes to the pain. When she opened them again, she realized the truth about the man standing before her.

She sat horrified as the Mexican solider morphed his face and body into the Super Soldier; the same Super Soldier that Mulder was convicted of "killing." He grabbed her neck with one hand and lifted her whole body up out of the chair, choking her.

* * *

How long had she been gone? Hours? Days? Mulder couldn't tell. He was at his wits end with worry and grief. He sat huddled in the corner of his cell, his head bowed into his arms which were stretched over his knees. 

"The Old Man is right. Things are not what they seem."

Mulder was startled by Krycek's voice. He lifted up his head.

"You look like crap, Mulder," Krycek simply stated.

"Thanks, buddy," Mulder replied, his voice tired and sad.

"You know, I always thought you and Scully had something going on. Too bad I didn't live long enough to win the office bet."

"Shut up," Mulder seethed through his teeth.

"How quickly you forget that I'm on your side, Mulder."

"Leave me alone." Mulder lowered his head back in the cradle of his arms.

"Look at you. The Smoking Man said you were defeated and broken. But I didn't realize..."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" Mulder snapped his head back up to yell at Krycek.

"It's more like what do you want from me? I can help you. Go ahead. Ask me. You know you want to." Krycek folded his arms and waited for Mulder to respond.

Mulder didn't want to give him the satisfaction. But in his anguish, his heart couldn't hold out any longer. He had to know.

"What are they doing to Scully? What do they want from her?"

"She is being questioned."

Mulder quickly stood as Krycek's words sunk in. "What do they want?"

Krycek swallowed and looked at Mulder with sympathy.

"WHAT DO THEY WANT?" Mulder repeated with anger.

"Your son."

"What?" Mulder's eyes widened in disbelief. "Who are these people?" Mulder felt the fight coming back into him.

"What you need to worry about now is how to get the hell out of here. Listen to me. You've escaped this place before, but it was in a different location."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Things are not what they seem..."

And with that, Krycek's apparition disappeared before Mulder's eyes.


	5. Too Valuable to Kill

* * *

She truly thought that her life was going to be extinguished right then and there. The Super Soldier held Scully by her throat just long enough to let her think she was going to die. But just before she was about to pass out, he threw her across the room. Her back slammed into the wall with a force that was inhuman. Scully crumpled to the floor, coughing and gagging and sputtering on her way down as she tried to figure out how to get oxygen back into her crushed lungs. 

The Super Soldier loomed over her, watching her as if he were a lion ready to pounce on his weak and wounded prey. "You had a child born to you, a boy. He must be turned over to us. Where is he?"

Scully had just caught a breath but the Super Solider took it away from her again with his words. So this was about William. She would tell him nothing. She would willingly die to protect her son.

"Just...kill...me now. I'm not...telling you...anything," Scully managed to get out between labored breaths.

"No. You are too valuable to kill." He stooped down to meet her determined gaze and brushed his fingers delicately over her bruised cheek. He surprised her when his other hand came up brandishing a syringe. She felt the prick in her arm before she could even protest. Darkness took her hostage.

* * *

"You're the reason they were able to track you down."

Scully slowly opened her eyes through the haze. She saw a figure standing off in the distance speaking to her. Not sure of where she was or who was speaking to her, she closed her eyes once more and shook her head. Maybe whoever that was would go away and leave her alone and let her sleep.

"They will always know where you are as long as you have that chip in your neck."

Scully opened her eyes, but everything was blurry and incomprehensible so she immediately shut them again. She was so tired. She just wanted to sleep.

"The chip must be removed or else they will keep finding you. Agent Scully, do you understand me?" The voice of X, Mulder's dead informant, called to her from beyond the grave, but she was in no condition to recognize him. "Agent Scully, can you hear me?" He tried one more time, but failed to get her attention.

"Can you hear me? Scully...Can you hear me?" Mulder desperately tried to reach Scully through the bars of their adjoining cells. She had been returned by the Mexican solider who had brought her back. She was unconscious. The soldier purposefully left her lying in her cell just beyond Mulder's reach.

Mulder stretched his arms as far as they could go through the bars, but it wasn't enough. He was inches away from touching her, but to him it seemed like miles. She was in a fetal position, her chin buried in her chest and her fiery hair splayed out over the ugly purple bruises peaking through from her face. He knew for sure she was hurt and it was killing him that he couldn't get to her or make her wake up. If it wasn't for the fact that he could visibly see her chest rising and falling, he would have surely thought her to be dead.

Mulder finally gave up trying to reach her and sat up to watch her instead. At least she was back here with him. He feared, though, that they would be coming for him next and then she would be alone. He had to figure out a way to get out of here before that happened. What did the Smoking Man and Krycek mean, that things are not what they seem? That I've been here before but not in this location?

Scully stirred and Mulder instinctively called out to her. "Scully?"

Scully bolted up in a sitting position, as if she was waking up from a horrible nightmare. She groaned in pain as she was not prepared for the consequences of her quick movements.

"Easy, Scully. Take it easy."

"Mulder? What happened?" Scully brushed her hair out of her face and carefully lifted up her head, rolling it from side to side to work out the kinks.

"Scully, are you okay?"

Mulder noticed the twinge of fear in her eyes as she took a moment to survey her surroundings and the condition that she was in. "I think so. I...don't remember...what happened to me?"

"He came and took you. For questioning, I think. Scully, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. Just very sore."

"Can you move? Come over here so I can see."

Scully slowly crawled over to the bars and Mulder was finally able to get a better look at her injuries. He imagined every blow, every choke that caused the markings on her skin. His hand trembled as he gently rubbed his thumbs across the sides of her face, tracing over the bruises, willing them to instantly heal and disappear.

She would not crumble now. Not in front of him. Not when he was slowly unraveling with anger over what had happened to her and fear of what would happen next. She could see it in his eyes. It was her turn to be strong. She had to help him work through this.

"How long was I gone?"

"I don't know. Seemed like forever."

"Mulder, I'm hungry. Why don't you order us a pizza?"

Mulder didn't want to smile, but he couldn't help it. "I would but I left my wallet in the car."

Scully smiled back at him as she recognized that phrase. She had said it to him a long time ago, back during a whole other lifetime when they were stuck in the woods for the night trying to catch the monster of the week.

She felt Mulder relax a bit as he dropped his hands in his lap and let out a sigh. He debated whether or not to tell her about what Krycek had said to him, that William was somehow a part of this. He figured it best not to tell her for now, that it would only make things worse for her at this point.

"Scully, if we're going to get out of here, you need to remember what happened to you. Where did he take you? What did he say to you? What did he want?"

"Mulder, I can't...I don't know. It's all a blank. I'm sorry..."

"It's okay. Maybe it will come with time...you were unconscious for a while."

"Yeah, but how much time do we have?"


	6. The Boy

* * *

Somewhere from within there were these strange sounds that demanded to be sought out. As he dared to walk through opening, the whole atmosphere changed. The vastness inside of the sphere was unimaginable. Loud whisperings and silent shrieks saturated the air around him. He was surrounded by a multitude of capsules that encased innocent lives under thick glass and green goo. Their stomachs were turning transparent as the horrible creatures inside of them were twisting and turning and growing. He knew that this must be stopped. This can't go on. But what could he do?

He looked ahead to see a small boy standing there waiting for him. The boy had familiar eyes and red hair and wanted to be followed. They walked around the corner and the boy stopped to point down the long dark corridor. They continued walking down the corridor until it dead-ended into a prison cell. In complete surprise, he saw himself behind the bars. But he wasn't alone; Scully was behind the bars with him. He wanted to question the boy about what he was seeing, but after looking around for him, the boy had vanished. So he reached to grasp the iron bars of the cell and he found that they weren't iron bars; nothing he touched was solid and his hands went right through as if nothing were there at all. But reaching in a little further into the cell, his hand got caught in a force field that shook his entire arm back and forth at what seemed like the speed of light.

Mulder gasped and gulped for air as he was pulled out of his sleep and woke up from his nightmare. Scully was still asleep in the adjacent cell. He was glad that his abrupt awakening didn't disturb her. He paused to wipe the sweat off his brow. He remembered every detail, every sound, every smell, every color. The boy. Somehow he knew it was William. A little older than he should be, but Mulder knew deep in his heart that it was his son who was telepathically showing him where they were. And now he knew. This place is not what it seems. And he had been here before. Only the last time he was here it was buried under hundreds of feet of the glacial Artic ice and snow...

* * *

I know I know...short! All I have time for at the moment. But I plan on continuing with this story so stick with me...


	7. Scully Remembers

* * *

Scully sensed that Mulder was awake. She couldn't bring herself to open her eyes though, as her body rebelled in pain from the beating it had taken. She could feel herself getting weak. How long had they been down here without food or water? 

The dull throbbing in her back and side was difficult to ignore. It hurt her to breathe. What happened to me, she thought to herself. She knew from the pain that a few of her ribs were broken. She kept her eyes closed and tried to relax and breathe lightly without moving her abdomen too much.

Without warning, a very short but clear vision flashed in her mind of being thrown against a wall by a force like no other. The vision came and went so fast, she wasn't quite sure what to think about it. But then another picture burst into her head, and it felt like she was actually reliving the moment. She remembered. And she was truly terrified. She forced her eyes to open and her body to move into a sitting position.

She could not stop her tears this time. "Mulder...I remember."

When Mulder did not look at her or answer her, she became concerned about him. "Mulder?" He was frozen in place and looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

After a moment of heart-wrenching silence, he turned to face her. "They want William, don't they? The Alien Super Soldiers that are holding us here..."

She never heard his voice sound so small, as if he were a little child himself.

"How did you..." Scully was amazed at how he knew all of the sudden.

Mulder shook his head from side to side and gave her a pained look that told her not to ask. "Don't ask me to explain it, Scully...I don't want to believe that it's true..."

Scully angrily wiped away her tears that fell with the back of her hand, but the wetness still remained on her face. She sniffed. "Why now, Mulder? Why do they want him now? They had the chance to take him the moment he was born."

"I think they wanted to watch him first. To see what he is capable of. You have been in danger this whole time, and I didn't see it coming." He wore his guilt like an old tattered oversized coat wet from the rain.

She was too frightened to ask him what he meant by that. Just what was their son capable of? But perhaps she already knew the answer to her own question. She knew that William was different although she never wanted to admit it. He could move objects with his mind. He never once got sick the whole time he was under her care. Was it really true? Was he the perfect human being, created out of the love between a woman who had a conspiracy-made chip implanted in her neck and a man whose DNA had been exposed and cured of the black oil alien virus? And if William is immune to the alien virus or any other disease for that matter, then he really is a threat to the Super Soldiers and their quest for alien hybridization.

Scully rubbed her hand over the back of her neck where her implant was. She had learned to forget that it was there. To remember that it was there all of the time would have driven her insane. It was impossible to know if the chip was a cure for her cancer and her infertility. Couldn't she just believe that her cures were miracles? Mulder had said to never give up on a miracle. Did the chip ever really have a purpose? Does it still? Mulder's voice broke her train of thought.

"Here, I want you to take this." Mulder reached for his left pant leg and pulled out a small shiny silver object from his sock. Scully recognized the object right away. She knew it was the only weapon that was designed to kill the Super Soldiers at the base of their necks. "Do you know how to use it?"

Scully took the weapon from Mulder and pushed the hidden button that quickly released the thin, pointy sword-like tip from its base with a "fffttt" sound.

"I have no doubt that they are coming back to question you further, but this time we will be ready."

Scully was silent as she looked at Mulder for more reassurance. He tried to give it to her. "We will get out of here, Scully. We have to."

"But how?" Scully still wasn't sure they could pull this off.

"There is a secret to this place. We have a chance to help others who have suffered from this conspiracy just as much as we have. We must put an end to it, Scully. Here and now. For the sake of our son. For the sake of the future of all mankind."

Scully reached out for Mulder through the bars and held on to him with all the strength she had left.


	8. A Drastic Change

As they held on to each other in their warm embrace through the bars of their adjoining cells, with Mulder's chin resting on top of Scully's head, neither one wanted to speak. For too many months they had been separated, and being connected like this now was like finding a lush oasis in the middle of the scorching desert. Even if they were in this forsaken place, they were at least together. No words were needed; only peace and time to drink it all in and rejuvenate their parched souls.

For Mulder, the loneliness had been unbearable. It was in those moments of solitude that he finally realized their love was something real, something to live for. She was the only thing that had kept him going. She had become so much a part of him that he could no longer breathe unless he was with her; unless he knew that she was okay and still had faith in him. Being an absent father had taken a toll on him as well. He had only known his newborn son for the first few days of the infant's life. He was never quite sure how he would fit into the unexpected yet profound role of fatherhood, but the love he felt for his son ran true and deep from the moment he first laid eyes on him. Being apart from William proved even harder than he thought it would be.

For Scully, Mulder's absence had been more like a fairy tale. Her knight in shining armor was out there, somewhere, trying to slay the fire-spitting dragon with only his bare hands in order to protect his new family. It was ethereal. At first, she was able to take some comfort in their son. Being able to see Mulder's eyes and smile within her son's precious face was bittersweet, but the day that she had to give up her baby for adoption in order to protect him, all hope drained out of every ounce of her life. Mulder was constantly on her mind. She was constantly worried about him. She could only hope that someday he would return to her. And he did, but not in the way she had wanted it to be. Even still, she had felt their strong emotional connection the whole time he was away, and now she knew that same connection was even stronger, sharper, and more finely tuned since being reunited. To know that they no longer had to dance around their feelings in front of each other was refreshing.

A strange rumbling disturbed their thoughts. They both sat up straight and looked at each other. The rumbling stopped, but just for an instant. Then, very quickly, the whole ground began to shake violently. A shrieking noise so loud that it was unimaginable pierced their ear drums. They both put their hands to their ears to try to stifle the pain. The ceiling started to crumble apart. They both stood up and tried to dodge the pieces that were falling down on them. And just as quickly as it had started, the noise suddenly stopped and the ground became a solid foundation once again.

But as the dust settled, Mulder and Scully realized their new predicament. They stood motionless and blinked at each other in disbelief. The prison cell that they were in began to dramatically change into something completely different right in front of their eyes. The iron bars were fading in and out, disappearing and reappearing like they were made of lasers and someone was attempting to turn off their power source. The stone walls of the prison cell blipped out of sight much like someone turning off the monitor screen of a computer. It only took a minute for the whole room to finally dissolve away, leaving the two standing in a much different place. Now, instead of them being surrounded by stone walls and cold iron bars, they found themselves to be in the middle of a gigantic empty white space. There were no walls, and the expanse of the room seemed to go on forever. There was, however, a portal shining in the distance pointing them to a way out.


	9. Can't Let Go

"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," Mulder dead-panned.

"Mulder, what the hell just happened?" Scully's eyes were wide.

"I think I'm finally beginning to understand."

Mulder brushed the dust out of his hair and started walking towards the portal that was way off into the distance.

"You can't be serious." Scully said this more to herself than to Mulder as she watched him walk on ahead. She remained planted in the same spot, dazed and still unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"Coming, Scully?" Mulder turned his head to look at Scully behind him while he kept on walking.

She started to follow him and felt the strangest sensation with each new step. There was a weird energy exuding from this place, and she felt the back of her neck tingle. It was hard to tell where to walk or how far they would have to go to get to the portal. This space that they found themselves surrounded in was so white and there were no lines- floor, ceiling, walls, or otherwise- to give them any indication of structure or form. To Scully, it almost felt like walking on a cloud in heavy fog.

She finally caught up with Mulder. After too much silence, she decided that she just had to ask. "Mind telling me what it is that you are finally beginning to understand?"

Mulder stopped walking and turned to face her. He looked afraid to tell her. He took hold of her hands.

"Mulder, what? What is it?" She searched his eyes for the answer.

"We've both been here before." Mulder waited to say anything further to see if Scully could put the pieces together. When she still looked confused, he continued. "Only the last time we were on this ship, it was buried under the ice and snow. In Antarctica."

"No." Scully shook her head, certain that Mulder was wrong. "No, this place is different. It looks different." As she said this, she felt the back of her neck tingling once again. She wanted to reach back and touch the place where her chip was implanted, but Mulder still had a good hold of her hands.

"I think it will look more familiar once we go through that portal." Mulder motioned his head toward the doorway that glistened in the distance.

"How do you know? Why do you think this?"

Mulder let go of Scully's hands. He knew he had to be honest with her. "William showed me."

"William...I don't understand...Mulder! What the hell is going on? Oh God, William's not here, is he? You saw him?" Scully was overwhelmed with this new piece of information. She blinked back tears and finally reached her hand to the back of her neck to rub the skin over her implant to try and stop the tingling.

"No. He came to me in a dream, Scully." Mulder tried to speak calmly and slowly to settle down Scully's emotions. "He was an older boy leading me around the ship. But I knew it was William. I saw us behind the bars in the prison and he also showed me the capsules with all the people trapped and wired into the ship. They had aliens growing inside of them. Just like you would have when you were here the last time, but I had got there in time to give you the vaccine."

"No. No! Mulder stop! I can't hear any more of this!" The tingling in her neck was making her even more frustrated. She kept rubbing it.

"But you have to! There's no telling what we're going to face when we cross that portal. You have to believe, Scully. We have to stay ahead of the game in order to survive."

Scully could no longer ignore the strange sensation in her neck. She was rubbing it with both hands now, and Mulder finally recognized her discomfort.

"What is it? What's wrong?" He moved her elbow out of the way to look at the back of her neck.

"It's nothing. I'm fine." She broke away from his would-be inspection of her neck and started to walk ahead towards the portal. She thought she had gotten far enough away from him, but once again she felt his hand on her as he grabbed her arm in worried anger.

"Damn it, Scully! I thought we've moved passed the 'I'm fine' stage of our relationship. Why can't you be honest with me? It's the chip, isn't it?"

Scully stared at Mulder's strong hand that firmly had her arm in a grip that he refused to ease up on.

"Let go of me." Her voice was like ice but her tears were melting down her face.

"No." Mulder used his other hand to tenderly brush away her tears. "I can't let go of you." Mulder released his grip on her arm. "I will never let go of you."

Scully silently swallowed a sob that came up her throat. Her tears continued to fall as she watched Mulder's face crumble. How was it that this man who had a hard time expressing how he felt in words could display all his deepest emotions on his face with just one look. She saw love, fear, worry, and hurt all at the same time.

She reached up to graze his face with her delicate hands. He leaned into her touch and closed his eyes as her fingers made their way down to his lips, caressing the softness she felt there. And then she finally relented and swung her arms around his waist while burying her head in his chest. He held on to her tightly in return. He lowered his head down to kiss the top of her head.

"Come on. We've got to keep walking." They mutually left their embrace but held hands as they continued their way to the entrance of the portal.


	10. The Portal

When they reached the portal, Scully was going to walk right through it without question, but Mulder thought better of it and stopped Scully just short of the opening. He held her back with his arm.

"Wait."

Mulder stuck his arm through the portal and the same effect happened to him just like in his dream with William. Mulder's arm was caught in a force field that was ferociously jerking and bouncing it around like it was made out of rubber, at a speed that was extraordinarily too fast to even calculate. He quickly pulled his arm back out.

Scully swallowed hard. "You mean to tell me we have to walk through...THAT?"

"You see any other way out of here, Scully?"

She let out the breath she was holding. Mulder extended his hand to her, and she answered him by grasping his hand with hers. Now hand in hand, the two bravely walked through the portal together. They quickly got caught up in the force field. Their bodies were lifted up and shaken and twisted to the extreme. They both briefly passed out from the sensation, but awoke again when the force field spit them back out and dropped them to the ground on the other side of the portal.

"Well! Wasn't that fun?" Mulder smirked to Scully as he got up from the ground. Scully was on her hands and knees, struggling to get up. "You okay, Scully?"

He yanked on her arm to pull her up but abruptly stopped the motion when she screamed in pain, "NO, WAIT!"

He was startled by how much pain she was in. But then he realized that she had still to recover from her bruising she received at the hands of the Super Soldier, and with the force field wracking her body all over again...

Mulder stared at her wide-eyed, waiting for her to say something, wanting to help her but not knowing how.

The beating from the force field had knocked the breath out of her and also rekindled the pain from her broken ribs. "I...just...need a...minute," Scully courageously told Mulder, trying to hide the true pain that she felt to ease his mind.

"Okay," Mulder quietly said as he sat back down and rubbed her back. "Just breathe, Scully. Nice and slow, in and out." He continued to rub his palm in a circular motion across her back.

She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on his soothing massage rather than the sharp pain that was ricocheting throughout her chest cavity. Even though it hurt to breathe, the few deep breaths that she took by Mulder's gentle prompting helped her to calm down from the overall shock that her body had just received.

After a few minutes, she said, "Okay, I think I'm ready to get up."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Mulder helped her to her feet. "Okay?" he asked, still concerned as she held on to him for support.

"Yeah," she repeated and even flashed him a slight smile. "That WASN'T fun, Mulder."

Mulder nodded and smiled back at her. Seeing that she was feeling better, they finally set out to look around and see where they were at. They walked a ways down a narrow corridor.

"This is just like in my dream, Scully. I think I know what we're going to find."

Scully stopped walking. "Do you smell that, Mulder?"

Mulder sniffed the air. "Smells like something is burning."

"This just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"

"Come on. Let's keep going."

When the reached the end of the corridor, they were stricken with horror at the sight before them. The vastness of the sphere-like place that they now entered into was overwhelming. There was smoke and fire everywhere, and the shrieks and shrills echoing throughout the expanse were haunting and chilling. Through the smoke rising they could see thousands upon thousands of glass capsules standing upright, encasing humans who had aliens growing inside their now-transparent stomachs. This whole scene was remarkably familiar to them; it was just like in Antarctica, but something else had happened here. Most of the capsules near them seemed to be destroyed. The thick glass of the capsules had been penetrated and the bodies of both the humans and their alien "parasites" who were enslaved in them were lying everywhere on the ground in pools of green goo. Some were still alive, gasping and writhing from the pain of imminent death. The fires, the smells, the sounds, the bodies...it was like this place had recently been under attack. But by whom?


	11. Blood and Tears

Standing in front of the nightmare before them, Scully felt the tingling in the back of her neck again. She remembered another time when the chip felt this way; when it unknowingly led her to the rebel aliens who were killing abductees by burning them alive at the Ruskin Dam in Pennsylvania. She nearly lost her life there. Thinking back on this, she knew now what had happened here. The rebel aliens had attacked the Super Soldier aliens. She stood transfixed in a daze as she heard a voice being replayed in her mind. She somehow thought she heard that voice before...someone telling her that her chip must be removed or else they will keep finding her.

Scully absentmindedly reached for the weapon from her pocket that Mulder had given her. The blade popped out with that distinctive "fftttt" sound. She raised the blade to the back of her neck and started slicing an opening around the chip. She didn't care about the pain or the fact that her ruby-red blood ran thick down her slender porcelain neck. She wanted the chip out and she wanted it out NOW.

Mulder's gaze had been riveted to the scene before him; the fires, the parasitic aliens gasping on the ground for air, the vastness and extent of this project which had gone horribly wrong. It wasn't until he heard Scully's sharp cry that he turned his attention to her and was shocked to the core at what he saw her doing.

"SCULLY, STOP! NO!"

He ran to her side and grabbed the metal blade from her hands before she could get any farther with her task. The blood ran down her neck just as fast as her tears ran down her cheeks. She fought Mulder hard for the weapon; she desperately wanted it back so she could finish what she started. She was pounding his chest with her fists. "GIVE IT BACK, MULDER! GIVE IT BACK!"

Mulder threw the bloodied weapon down so that he could grab hold of Scully's arms which were now flinging wildly at him. "STOP IT SCULLY! STOP!" He finally had her in a grip that she could not get out of. She shrunk to the ground while he held her wrists tight and followed her down.

"Give it back Mulder! Please! Give it back!" Her voice was quieter now as she sobbed and muffled those words into Mulder's chest.

He grabbed her face and in wonder and amazement asked her, "Why Scully? Why? What were you thinking?" He could not stop his own tears from falling now. She was truly scaring him.

She was not sorry for what she tried to do. "Oh God, Mulder. I just want this nightmare to end. When will it end?" She buried her head once again into his chest and sobbed uncontrollably. She was falling apart in his arms and he knew that this time there was nothing he could do or say to make it better. He could only let her have this moment to cry it all out. And he needed a moment to gather his nerves back and settle the tight knot in his stomach. He held her tight and tried to stop the oozing blood from flowing out of the fresh incision with pressure from the palm of his hand.

After a while, her sobs subsided into shaky breaths, and he finally found his voice again. "Scully, you have to promise me that you'll never try that again. Scully, your cancer...I can't...please...the chip has to stay in."

She raised her head to meet his gaze. His hand remained pasted to the back of her neck.

"Ruskin Dam. It's Ruskin Dam all over again. They will always be able to find me as long as this chip is in me. Don't you understand? I can't live like this anymore. I want it out." Her eyes were large and glassy, pleading with him to agree with her.

He did not want to have this discussion. He knew he was being selfish. It was her body, after all. It should be her decision. But if the chip was removed and her cancer came back...he could not live with that fear of losing her. But it seemed that this fear that they now faced was equally just as great; that she was constantly in danger of being found by the rebel aliens. He could lose her either way.

He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again. How could he tell her what to do? He helped her to stand back up again.

"Scully...we don't have time to talk about this right now." He looked deep into her eyes with the same pleading look that she had given him. "We have to keep moving. We're not safe here." Mulder tore a scrap off from his T-shirt and made a make-shift bandage for Scully's neck. "Here, hold this on it." He pushed the cotton swatch to the back of her neck and her hand took over from there. Mulder's hands were still covered with her blood. He didn't know how else to clean them other than to transfer the stains to his jeans. He bent down to rub his hands over his thighs.

As he was bent down, he spotted the blade that he had thrown on the ground a few feet ahead of them. He stooped over to pick it up, but Scully beat him to it. She picked up the blade and just for a second he was afraid of what she was going to do with it. But then he watched her as she pushed the blade back down into its base. Without looking at him, she silently placed the weapon in his hand. He returned it to its original hiding place under his sock for safe keeping.


	12. The People in the Capsules

Scully couldn't help but look at the dead bodies lying on the ground as she and Mulder continued walking through the rows of damaged capsules. Surely these people had loved ones somewhere who were missing them. If only they knew. Perhaps it was better for them not to know; maybe it was better to just bury the truth and let it fade away into the nightmare that it was, to wake up the next morning as if it were all just a dream.

The truth weighed heavy on Scully's conscience and stripped her of her soul; to be thinking these thoughts, was she any better than the conspirators who had given their lives to keep this unspeakable secret in the dark?

Mulder was walking a short distance ahead of her, dodging broken glass, small fires, and numerous bodies. "Hey Scully. Help me look for a vent or an opening. That's how we got out of here last time." He tilted his head upward but all he could see were more levels of the same horrific scenery. There seemed no end to it.

Scully also looked up but the movement aggravated the long cut at the back of her neck. It had stopped bleeding a while ago, but the pain was still fresh. She decided not to argue with Mulder for now about the chip. He was right; they needed to find a way out of this place and now was not the time to deal with it. She supposed that if the chip was indeed an alien tracking device, maybe it could help them provide the proof they needed to get Mulder off the hook and they could go home. Then she would take the chip out once they were home.

Home. Would she ever be able to go back home? And if she could, what would be there waiting for her? She would be going back to an empty nursery and her mother who would never fully understand or forgive her actions. And what of her life and Mulder's? She was technically aiding a "criminal" who was supposed to have died by now from lethal injection, or so the verdict said. Her boss and colleagues also helped Mulder to escape. What had become of them? Had they been caught up in this mess too, also on the run to flee from the punishment of knowing the truth? And then there's the truth itself. Can anyone run away from the truth? The date is set; everyone on the planet only has until the year 2012 to live out their lives until the final invasion. Does anyone have the power to change the inevitable?

"Mulder, we have to do something to help these people. Some of them are still alive," Scully said as she caught a glimpse of a woman still encased in an upright capsule.

"But what can we do, Scully? We don't have the vaccine. Everyone in the Syndicate is dead. And we don't even know where they got that vaccine from or even if it is still being produced."

Scully rubbed her hand in a circular motion over the glass of the capsule to get a better look at the woman.

"Come on, Scully. Let's climb up higher. There's got to be a ventilation system up there that could lead us to a way out." Mulder started to climb up on the debris and motioned for Scully to follow him.

But Scully was transfixed on the woman before her. She still couldn't quite see her face but could tell that she was still alive by her movements behind the foggy glass. Something about this woman was drawing Scully in.

Mulder stopped his climbing to look back at Scully. "Scully, what are you doing? We can't help her. There's nothing we can do!"

Scully ignored Mulder's words as she continued to rub the glass hoping to get a better look inside the capsule. Her manual labor finally paid off as the eyes of the woman behind the glass now blankly stared back at her own. And then an awful realization hit and froze Scully in her in place.

"Scully, what? What is it?"

Scully couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't breathe.

Mulder jumped down from where he was and made his way over to Scully and the capsule. He looked at the woman and then at Scully. Something was terribly wrong.

"Scully?" He was afraid to touch her. She looked absolutely horrified and could not stop looking at the woman before her.

Finally, Scully took in a breath and said, "No...it can't be." She looked over to the next capsule in line and saw that there was another person still alive in that one as well. She moved over to it and frantically started to rub the glass to see inside. Mulder just stood and watched in confusion. A man appeared behind the hazy glass, and Scully took a step back and held her hand over her mouth in disbelief.

"Scully, do you know these people?"

Scully didn't want to speak. She just slowly nodded her head yes as she stared in shock at the man in the capsule.

"Who are they?" Mulder gently prodded.

In a half whisper, Scully barely got out their names. "Mr. and Mrs. VandeKamp." Scully then looked up at Mulder to explain. "William's adoptive parents."


	13. Contact

"What have I done?" Scully still stood riveted in front of the VandeKamps. She felt the tears well up, but they refused to fall. Perhaps this was too much of a shock; she didn't even have the strength to cry anymore.

Mulder closed his eyes and tried to make the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach go away. He rubbed his hands over his face and rested his palms on his forehead. None of this would have happened if he had never left Scully and William. And here Scully was blaming herself.

"It's nothing you did," Mulder said quietly as he turned around and found a spot to sit down. His lanky legs couldn't hold him up anymore after receiving this news.

"I've killed our son!" Scully's voice was loud and saturated with sorrow and bitterness.

Mulder was quick to respond. "NO! He's NOT dead."

Scully finally tore her eyes away from the capsules and turned around to face Mulder. "How can you be so sure?"

"He came to me in my dream. We're connected somehow. How else could that be unless he's still alive?"

"Then where is he? Who's taking care of him? He's just a baby, Mulder! He's just a b..." Scully was exasperated. She took in a deep breath and started over. "The Super Soldiers don't even know where he is. They wanted me to tell them."

"I don't know who's taking care of him, but someone is. We're going to find him." Mulder stood up and gathered Scully into his arms once again. She was completely engulfed by his embrace and welcomed it, needed it. They both did. Scully clung to him desperately, and Mulder began to wonder where she received the sudden strength to hang on to him so tightly in return. "We're going to find him," he said again confidently for her sake. He could only hope that he was right.

After a few minutes, while still holding Scully close, Mulder noticed some movement to the right out of the corner of his eye. To his amazement, a rebel alien quietly came into view. The alien just stood there, and even though it didn't have eyes, it still seemed to look right at Mulder. This made Mulder immediately alert. He didn't want to startle Scully who had no idea that this alien was standing several feet behind her; her face was still buried in his chest. So he just kept holding her and waited.

Mulder watched silently as the rebel alien pointed upward to an opening in the next level of rubble. Was this alien trying to help them or was this a trap?

"Um, Scully?"

"Yeah?" Scully mumbled.

"Don't panic, but we have a visitor..."

"What?" Scully lifted her head up and Mulder motioned for her to turn around. As she did so, she immediately felt a twinge in the back of her neck. The chip was starting to act up again, much like it did before they went through the portal. This time her chip was emitting a strong throbbing signal throughout her body. "Oh my God..." Scully breathed as she saw the alien. Scully instinctively touched the back of her neck with her hand. "He...He...He's trying to communicate with me. The chip..."

Mulder grabbed Scully's elbow and together they carefully took a few steps backwards as the alien was slowly approaching them. "What is he saying?"

"I...I don't know. I can't understand. It's more like...like an electronic signal than actual words."

The alien was even closer to them now; Mulder automatically took a defensive position and put himself in between the alien and Scully.

"Wait, Mulder." Scully moved her way around Mulder and was now only a few feet away from the alien. "I don't think he wants to hurt us." The rebel alien was concentrating on Scully now, and they finally approached one another and met face to face.

Mulder watched in nervous curiosity as the alien reached behind Scully's head and placed his hand on her chip. Mulder was very uncomfortable with this situation. He slowly reached down and retrieved the alien-killing blade from his sock; one false move from the alien and Mulder was ready to pounce. "Scully? Are you alright?"

Scully closed her eyes and didn't answer Mulder. She seemed to be in a kind of trance. The alien kept his hand at the back of her neck. Mulder didn't know whether to interrupt or to let this keep happening. "Scully?" he called again, louder. But she couldn't hear him.


	14. Memory Flash

Her eyes were closed, but in the brightness she felt all her pain subside. Her mind was emptied of all thought and awareness of her surroundings. There was a warm energy flowing throughout her body. It started at the base of her neck and traveled down through her shoulders, then caressed her ribcage and her abdominal muscles, and soothed the ache in her back and legs. All her physical wounds were healed.

When she was completely relaxed, her brain waves were taken over by the alien who held her in a captivating trance. At first the flashes of scenes that the alien melded into her mind went slow, clicking on and off, one at a time, like a slideshow. She wasn't quite sure what she was being shown, but she had no other choice than to keep paying attention. What she saw was unexplainable; he was trying to show her the future and she couldn't grasp the concepts.

The alien could feel her frustration and knew that he wasn't getting through to her. So he changed the speed and the topic of that which he was trying to communicate. He burned images into her mind at a rapid speed, but this time she could keep up with what she was seeing. She saw herself lying on a cold metal table, surrounded by light and horrific machines drilling and doing terrible things to her. She saw men standing around her watching the experiments that were being done. She realized that she knew these men; some were government officials but one man in particular stood out. It was the puff of smoke from his cigarette that gave him away. But it wasn't just men that were there in that room; there were rebel aliens as well. This was a shock to her and she could only watch these scenes that kept flashing before her with sheer intensity. The secrets of her own abduction had been kept a mystery to her all this time; but now she was being introduced to the details and it scared her. The chip that had been implanted in her neck and the extraction of all her ova had been planned by the government which was working closely with the rebel aliens. It was medical rape, and she felt violated all over again.

The alien knew he had struck a chord with her. It was not his intention to make her upset, so he again changed the topic of her mind invasion. Now she saw herself in the hallway of the hospital, being held by Mulder. She remembered how safe she felt at that moment; that even though there was no cure for her cancer at that point, within Mulder's tender embrace she had found the strength to not give up hope.

Then the alien fast forwarded to another hallway and another embrace, this time Mulder was pouring out his heart to her in a frantic but bold confession. Mulder locked eyes with her and actually told her how much he needed her because he couldn't do this alone. If she quits now, they win. And then he tried to kiss her. She remembered that she would have let him, but then the bee stung her and she watched as Mulder gently laid her on the floor ran to call for help as she gasped and gulped for air. The next scene that flashed into her mind was when she and Mulder were lying on the cold Artic ice, and she finally saw what Mulder had wanted her to see at that moment; the alien spaceship that flew above them.

And then the alien showed her images of her daughter Emily. Scully thought her heart would explode. But there was Mulder again, helping her through her sadness at Emily's funeral. And then for some reason, an image of Mulder's sister Samantha appeared. The memory of Mulder's abduction came next and it was just as painful now reliving it all over again as it was then. But soon she saw him alive in the hospital, waking up and asking her if anybody missed him.

Her heart was calmed again from seeing her relationship with Mulder unfold right before her eyes. All of the moments that drew them close together were shown to her. The alien started with the very first time they met and took her all the way through the years, showing her those special moments that created the strong bond and the deep love that she and Mulder now share. Among her favorite memories were the night at the ball field when he held her close, the two of them watching cheesy movies late into the night, her falling asleep on his couch and him covering her up with his blanket, and the moment when he agreed to try the invetro procedure to help her have a baby.

And then there the three of them stood, Mulder, herself, and baby William who was only two days old, in the middle of her own bedroom. She was surrounded by such incredible love. Scully felt a tear trickle down her face. And then she saw the moment Mulder left and the agonizing months without him that followed. The alien reminded her of the special powers that William had, and how Jeffry Spender had injected William with an unknown substance. More tears trickled down Scully's face as she saw herself say goodbye to William for the last time before giving him to the case worker from the adoption agency. But her heart lit up once again as Mulder gave her a passionate reunion kiss in his jail cell.

Within seconds, the scenes began to change again to what the alien had first tried to show her. She saw war and desolation, but she saw that the rebel aliens were working with humans to destroy the Super Soldiers. There was something about magnetite, blood serums, clones, and implanted computer chips. Scully didn't understand. The last scene she saw was of baby William. A woman was holding him. Scully tried to figure out who it was and where they were. But the image was starting to fade away. She could almost see...and then she heard herself shout "NO!" as she was jerked awake back into the present.


	15. Pieces of the Puzzle

Scully opened her eyes but then quickly decided to shut them again. The burning sensation was too intense. While rubbing her eyes with her hands, she felt someone grab her waist and gently help her walk backwards. She heard Mulder's voice close to her ear.

"His blood is toxic. We need to back off."

When they were a safe distance away, Scully finally felt comfortable opening her eyes again. And then she realized what Mulder had done. The rebel alien's body was lying face down on the ground, with a stab wound to the base of his neck where hot green blood was spewing out.

"Why did you do that? He was trying to tell me something!"

Mulder was surprised by her disappointment. "You were crying! I thought he was hurting you!"

"He showed me William but I couldn't see where he was...and then the image faded...I was so close! Dammit Mulder!" Scully yelled in frustration.

"Scully, I'm sorry! But I couldn't just stand here and watch what was happening! I waited and I waited...I didn't know what he was doing to you! You wouldn't answer me when I called your name!"

Scully saw the worry in Mulder's eyes. She took a deep breath to try to calm down. Could she really blame him for what he did? She probably would have done the same thing if the situation was reversed. Scully stared down at the crumpled lifeless body of the alien. The oozing flow of blood was now beginning to slow and thicken.

"What DID he do to you?" Mulder's voice was quieter now.

"He healed me...he sent this energy through my body and now it doesn't hurt anymore. See?" Scully pushed on her rib cage and felt no pain. She showed Mulder the back of her neck. The cut that she had made was gone.

"But why were you crying?"

Scully thought for a moment, trying to remember all that the alien had showed her. "Because he showed me my life. All the horrific moments and all the beautiful ones."

Mulder reached a hand to Scully's face and wiped away the dampness on her cheek. "William?" he asked gently.

Scully sniffed her stuffy nose and nodded her head. "And you."

Mulder smiled. "Ah. Since I was there, no wonder it was horrific."

"I said there were beautiful moments, too." Scully smiled back. Then she went quiet for a moment as she dazed out.

Mulder's face turned serious again. "There's something else, though, isn't there?"

"I can't really tell you what I saw."

"Can't or won't?"

"I can't. I mean, he was trying to show me the future. I didn't understand it all."

"What did you see?"

"I think that the rebel aliens might have been working with our government from the beginning, to come up with a plan to destroy the Super Soldiers."

"What makes you say that?"

"My abduction...they were there."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. And Mulder...you, me, and William are an integral part of the plan. Our abductions, everything that has happened to us, they have been using us all along. Even Samantha and Emily...we are all pieces of the puzzle. We've all been part of their experiments. And because of us, they now have the knowledge of how to fight back, how to stop the inevitable."

"But once again, we're still left in the dark," Mulder added.

"I don't know. Maybe not for much longer if I can make sense of what he tried to show me." Scully walked toward the alien and stooped down to get a closer look now that the blood flow had stopped. She grabbed a shard of glass that was lying next to the body and scraped some of his blood onto the glass. "Do you have anything I can put this in for safe keeping?"

Mulder patted his jean pockets but came up empty. He then looked around and found a small oxygen tank attached to one of the capsules. "Maybe this will work." Pulling the tank from the capsule, Mulder was able to open it and the oxygen was released in one big puff of air. Scully carefully slid the blood sample into the canister and Mulder sealed it back up.

They both stopped to once again look at their surroundings. Scully dared not to look at the capsules that held William's adoptive parents. There were still small fires around them with debris and dead bodies everywhere, whether human or not. There seemed to be no way out.

"What do we do now?" Scully asked.

"We get out of here and find William."


	16. Escape Route

"I know one thing; it's a lot easier this time around climbing up here without you passed out on my shoulders," Mulder said as he grunted his way up another level of tangled metal and piping. He was careful not to disturb the small canister holding the alien blood sample which was clipped to his side on the belt of his jeans. As soon as he had a strong foothold, he turned around and offered his hand to Scully to help her climb up.

"Oh I don't know. I think I rather prefer it that way," Scully mused as she grabbed his hand and allowed his strength to pull her up to the next level. They were both out of breath at this point, and once she had reached where Mulder was, they both sat down side by side to take a break. "How much further to you think until we reach an opening?"

"Who knows. But that alien pointed 'up,' so that's where we're going."

"Do you think he can be trusted?"

Mulder let out a half chuckle in disbelief that she would say that now. "Trust an alien? Do you realize what you just asked?"

"Okay. Stupid question. But I just want to get out of here. This ship is not stable and all this green alien goo all over the place is really giving me the willies."

"Please explain to me the scientific definition of the 'Willies.'

Scully could only look playfully into his eyes. She loved it when he smiled at her the way he was. It was a flirty, affectionate smile meant only for her to see. She rested her head on his shoulder and he snaked his arm around her petite waist.

"What would I do without you, Scully?" He placed a gentle kiss to the crown of her head. She was taken aback by how serious he sounded all of the sudden.

"You pick the strangest time and place to get mushy on me, Mulder."

"Ah, but you love it."

As she drew closer to him, a slight rumble somewhere within their vicinity caused some debris to fall around them.

"I guess that's our cue," Mulder said as he stood up, pulling Scully with him. "You're right; this ship isn't stable. We have to keep moving."

"Mulder, look!"

Scully pointed up and Mulder's eyes followed. They were able to see clearer above them now that some of the debris had fallen away. An opening to a large pipe that angled up at about a forty-five degree angle was revealed. They couldn't see all the way to the end to tell where it led, but it was definitely lit on the inside by natural light.

"Ladies first," Mulder said as he bent down and let Scully crawl on his shoulders. He slowly stood back up and Scully stretched out and rested her elbows on the inside of the pipe. He gave her a little jolt and she was able to dangle for a few seconds on her own with the strength of her forearms. Mulder adjusted his stance and then pushed her by her feet so that she could inch the rest of the way in. Scully turned around in the pipe and was ready for Mulder as he jumped up into her tight grasp of his arms. She planted her feet firmly against the insides of the pipe for leverage, and Mulder found a way to use the debris below him to climb his way in.

Scully turned back around and looked down the long, eerie pipe. More rumbling sounds were heard below them. The vibrations were much stronger this time, and they felt the pipe shake dangerously back and forth.

"I don't think we have much time before this place implodes. Mind getting those little legs moving, there, Scully?"

"Just try not to admire the view too much," Scully shot back. She started crawling as fast as she could on her hands and knees and Mulder followed her quickly.

"You pick the strangest time and place to flirt with me, Scully."

Scully ignored his last comment and she concentrated on the speed and sound of her right hand, right knee, left hand, left knee smacking against the cold, thick metal of the pipe over and over in a restless rhythm. She didn't dare look ahead but instead kept her head down for fear that she would get discouraged by not seeing the tunnel's end.

Just when they were picking up speed and making headway, a violent explosion rocked the ship. They could feel the heat of the fire nipping at their heels. The aftershock caused the pipe to dislodge from its location, causing Mulder and Scully to lose their grip. The pipe teetered back and forth and then finally gave way to vertical. Scully's feet kicked Mulder in his face as the law of gravity took over. Down they went, sliding recklessly through the pipe with no way to hold on.


	17. Sweet Pea

* * *

"Come on, Sweet Pea. This is not the time or the place to stop and play." The woman was frantically trying to run away from the scene with baby in tow, but the little one had other ideas.

He had wriggled out of her grasp and had quickly crawled away from her. In a determined effort to get over to the large crater in the ground, he charged ahead on chubby hands and knees with no fear. Even as the smoke billowed up from the sand of the dried-up basin and the ground shook and rumbled beneath him, the baby instinctively knew what needed to be done.

When he reached his destination, his bulky diapered bottom plunked down next to the crater. With one tiny index finger extended out, he pointed down the hole. "Dah!" He giggled with delight and slapped his hands together. Then he sucked his thumb and stared intently down the crater.

"Careful, Sweet Pea. What are you doing? I'm not kidding...we really have to go!" Her words were ironically calm considering the story unfolding around them; she knew that if they didn't move quickly, they would be swallowed up by the underground ship that would be exploding any minute now. They had already made it up to the surface, and now all they needed to do was get as far away as possible to stay alive.

She ran towards the baby and snatched him up into her arms, not realizing that as he had peered down the hole, he had just saved the lives of two very important people. She kissed him quickly on his forehead, and he instantly grabbed a handful of her long curly brown hair in response. She headed for the base of the mountain with the baby safely tucked to her side.

* * *

His lanky limbs were contorted around her. She tried to push them out of the way, but there was hardly any room in the pipe to maneuver them to a different position, plus they were too heavy to move. He was unconscious. "Mulder?" Her mind was spinning and she felt dizzy and claustrophobic. He was on top of her and she couldn't breathe.

"Mulder?" She tried again. He heard her this time and he jerked back to life.

"Huh?"

"You okay?"

"Huh?" he said again, through the haze in his head.

"We stopped moving. The pipe stopped moving."

"What?" He lifted up his head and then plopped it back down again on Scully's shoulder. "Ow. Now I REALLY have a headache."

They each took a second to get their bearings back. Then the realization hit them. They had been falling. Fast. How was it that they were still alive?

"Mulder, what happened? And would you mind getting off me? I can't breathe..."

"Sorry." They untangled from each other as best as they could in the space that they had. Smoke started to fill the pipe, and once again they recognized the danger that they were still in.

Mulder coughed and looked down the pipe. "Somehow this pipe righted itself. I still see light up ahead."

"But we were falling. This pipe went vertical. By all accounts we should be dead."

"Maybe someone is looking out for us. I don't know how else to explain it."

Another explosion was heard off in the distance. Scully started a coughing fit from the smoke which was now getting thicker.

"Come on Scully, this time we are getting out of this hell hole for good." Mulder led the way as they started crawling towards the light source to the surface.


End file.
